Even here in kuvuki-land where I schooled, it has been banned

And I thought france was trying to be friendly with Nigeria with their offer to help fight BH.. So their aim is to loot us through the process. France you are still a learner

Too long jor

Grєą┼ ş┼๏rI...

M๏rє Grєąşє ┼๏ มr єLß๏Щ şIr

One thing i know is that if i wasn't born a Nigerian, half of my hustle would have been a success a long time ago. Being a Nigerian posses much more harm than good.

Engen:
By Pius Adesanmi

Putain de merde! I exclaim in absolute contempt as I hand over my passport to the French police officer. That’s an unthinkable vulgarity! It is the father of vulgarities in French, guaranteed to catch the attention of the French policeman who now holds my passport, lost in a few seconds of confusion. His colleagues in the ongoing process of stripping Nigerians of their human dignity also stop sharply in their tracks, all eyes on me. I have them where I want them.

Putain de merde! I exclaim in absolute contempt as I hand over my passport to the French police officer. That’s an unthinkable vulgarity! It is the father of vulgarities in French, guaranteed to catch the attention of the French policeman who now holds my passport, lost in a few seconds of confusion. His colleagues in the ongoing process of stripping Nigerians of their human dignity also stop sharply in their tracks, all eyes on me. I have them where I want them. I want all four French police officers to hear me use a vulgarity that no White French man or woman can get away with using in the presence of a French policeman in the best of circumstances, let alone an African with a black ass getting off the plane - and from Nigeria of all places!

In the thirty seconds of their confusion, I can visualize what is going on in their minds. Their job, to stand right at the door of the plane, look mean and unfriendly, and scrutinize the passports of all passengers arriving from Nigeria, before such passengers proceed to face further humiliation at immigration and passport control, has conditioned them psychologically to face docile, frightful, and suppliant Nigerians pouring out of Air France flights weekly from Abuja or Lagos. Only for this six-foot-two-inch-male to hand over his passport with an air of supreme confidence bordering on intolerable arrogance and to ice that cake of hubris with unbelievable pottymouthed vulgarity.

What to do with this pompous Nigerian? Well, he did say “putain de merde”, right? It’s not just that he said it. It’s the way he said it: 100% Parisian French, complete with the accent. Nobody says it like that without being in perfect command of the French language, culture, and civilization. Nobody says it like that without having lived in Paris, without having crawled the streets of Barbes and Chateau d’Eau, without having been a habitual crawler on the platforms of Les Halles. This arrogant chap is one of us. He knows us inside out. He must have once lived here with us. He is us. He is doing this deliberately to provoke a reaction.

If this is the thinking of these French police officers, they are absolutely right on the money. Unfortunately for them, the passport I present while spewing my vulgarity is Canadian, not Nigerian. It works! I can sense their disappointment, their frustration. The only one who has dared to confront them has to go and present the passport of a fellow Western power! I can visualize the one million and one things they would have done to me if I was travelling on my Nigerian passport. Of course, my intention, the moment I saw them on stepping out of the plane, is to hide behind the strong arms of Canada and fight for my Nigerian humanity and dignity. Those of us who live transnational lives often have to do that – much to our displeasure. I shouldn’t have needed the might and power of Canada to shield me from the scorn, humiliation, and racism of these French police officers. My Nigerian passport should have been enough to do the magic. And that is why I am writing this piece in anger.

The officer looks at my Canadian passport, scrutinizes the photo in it to make sure it’s me – black folk have this annoying habit of all looking alike, all looking the same – and smiles in helpless submission to the power of the Western essence of that passport. Then he asks a few friendly questions about my time in France. For a Nigerian, your French isn’t something one encounters every day, he says. How did you learn French? When did you leave France for Canada? Then he waves me on with wide smile. I leave after registering my protest over what he and his colleagues are doing. I am not fooled by the friendliness. I fear for my compatriots still waiting on the line with Nigeria’s notorious passport behind me. Once the good behaviour and amiable mien imposed on these police officers by Canada wears off, they will snarl at first sight of the next Nigerian passport and return to character. They will resume hostilities. Whoever steps up after me with a Nigerian passport will pay the price of my rudeness. Transferred aggression.

Above is a summary of what happened as I stepped off the plane from Abuja last week to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. I was on my way back from a busy week of lectures in Nigeria and was going to take a connecting flight to Ottawa. As the plane taxied to a stop at the gate, the captain announced that there would be an additional police check and passport control just outside the door of the plane. That was the beginning of my anger. I hadn’t flown Air France since the 1990s. In fact, the last time I did business with Air France was back in 1998 and that demeaning, dehumanizing, and patently racist policy of an extra passport check on passengers arriving from Nigeria had just begun. It was a fallout of the draconian racist policies of a French politician and government official called Charles Pasqua who pretty much spent the 1990s hunting and hounding African immigrants and enacting racist policy and racist policy when he served as Minister of Interior. Nicolas Sarkozy’s subsequent hounding of Africans and immigrants – who he called scum – was a Pasqua hangover. The National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his loquacious daughter are boy scouts in the province of French racism and intolerance. The real deal was Charles Pasqua and his 1990s laws.

How the French moved from their usual suspects, their usual victims – Malian, Burkinabe, and Senegalese immigrants – to focus on Nigeria as an even greater object of their scorn, contempt, and racism beats me. But the profiling and extra checks began in the 1990s. Since I stopped flying Air France in 1998, all my trips to France, all my holidays, all my summer writing retreats in Paris had been from Canada or the United States, so I had no way of knowing that the practice of profiling Nigerians arriving on Air France from Abuja or Lagos had continued all these years. It was in Abuja that I first got an inkling of what lay ahead. Boarding Air France from Nigeria is like attempting to clear security and see President Obama in the White House. In fact, it is easier to see Obama as you can always scale the fence of the White House these days. Air France officials check and recheck your passport. Layers and layers of checks. Just before you board, they queue you up again and bring electronic passport scanners in big boxes looking like INEC machines. Checks, checks, and checks. They already got on my temper in Abuja. Only to arrive in France and have stern police officers waiting right outside of the door of the plane for – alas – another layer of dehumanizing passport control. Mind you, the passengers whose final destination is France are still going ahead to immigration and passport control!

Just a week earlier, I had used this same airport on my way from Canada to Nigeria. When my plane landed from Montreal, nobody did any additional passport check. Nobody was waiting at the door of the plane. I just entered and went on to the gate of my connecting flight to Abuja – unharrassed, unmolested. Seven days later, I am coming from Abuja – same me, same passports – and everything changes. Checks, checks, checks. What has changed?

That extra passport check of passengers arriving from Nigeria – after all the pre-boarding checks and verification in Nigeria and the regular customs and immigration check they will still face in France - by French police is a flagrant act of racist humiliation and discrimination that should be resisted by the Nigerian Government. That nonsense started in the 1990s and I am surprised that the Nigerian Government has allowed it to last this long. Part of my frustration with the Nigerian authorities is that they don’t always know when and how to wield Nigeria’s immense economic weight against misbehaving European powers. France is of zero economic benefit to Nigeria. How many Nigerian businesses are in France? How many Nigerian conglomerates and multinational corporations are in France? Whatever we make from trade with France is guguru and epa money. On the contrary, Nigeria is of massive economic benefit to France. Total is in Nigeria. Peugeot is in Nigeria. Schlumberger is in Nigeria. So many French corporations are in Nigeria making a killing. Air France operates weekly flights to Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.

There is nothing France can do to Nigeria because she is of little or no economic value to Nigeria. The sky will not fall if Nigerians don’t consume brie, camembert and other French cheese (we have wara). The sky will not fall if Nigerians don’t consume French wine (which they know zero about anyway. A Nigerian pretending to know French wine is usually just forming). The sky will not fall if we don’t drive Peugeot (Japanese cars are there to ensure that we don’t miss Peugeot). On the contrary, if Nigeria sneezes, France will catch an economic cold. We are that important to the economy of France. In essence, France is in no position to humiliate and discriminate against Nigerians with that nonsensical extra passport check by police waiting outside the door of a plane in Paris – creating the impression that they are about to sort through a bunch of potential and actual criminals. What sort of profiling is this in the 21st century?

I wrote an article praising Viola Onwuliri a few months ago. Minister Onwuliri was handling career profilers of Nigeria at the international level in a way that made one proud to be a Nigerian. I even temporarily suspended my remembrance of her ignominious role in Occupy Nigeria because of the way she was doing the business of Nigeria at Foreign Affairs. The Ambassadors of India and Egypt will not forget her quickly. I think it is time for the Ambassador of France in Nigeria to be summoned to Foreign Affairs for an encounter with whoever has succeeded Viola Onwuliri. A clear, muscular, and unambiguous message needs to be sent to the Elysee in Paris. The message should be backed with threats. If the French do not stop their misbehaviour, we must threaten to ban Air France and even ban Total and Peugeot from operating in Nigeria. Nothing is more important than the human dignity of the Nigerian citizen. If the French state cannot respect that, they have no business doing business in Nigeria and raking in billions.

A note to the Nigerians who have been patronizing Air France since the 1990s. So, this practice has continued since the 1990s when I last flew Air France and una jus keep quiet dey tolerate am? This is why Nigerians dey taya me. This followership thing. This is why your rulers get away with everything they do to you. You just keep taking it. You take it from your rulers. You take it from Air France. You take it from South African Airways. You take it from Egypt Air. That is why Egypt Air felt emboldened to maltreat that Nigerian boy until Viola Onwuliri stepped in to deal with them. If, tomorrow, Air Rwanda starts to profile and maltreat you, you will take it from them.

Yeah, I know. I’ve heard it. If our rulers weren’t as useless and irresponsible as to kill Nigerian Airways, if we had our own national carrier, bla bla, and bla. That, my friend, is a yeye argument. That your system killed Nigerian Airways is no excuse for you to be treated anyhow by other airlines taking your hard-earned money. If they treat your money with dignity, they and the governments which own them must treat your body and person with dignity. End of story!


Source: www.nigeriatell.com/news/pius-adesanmi-ban-air-france-from-nigeria-now

Hope you sent a copy to our foreign affairs ministry; Lufthansa has always been my preferred airline though, yet to hear any ish on profiling with them.

"I schooled in France"

I experienced the same thing with KLM (I think they are partners with Air France) on my way back from Ghana. The officers were at the door (in Schipol) waiting for people to disembark the plane in order to scrutinize their passports. Again, I didn't experience this on my way to Ghana, (I was travelling from London, which made me think.

We are really taking crap. Our politicians are greedy, selfish and unintelligent to say the least. So we would continue to bear the brunt of these inhumane and humiliating actions by our foreign counterparts.

Still working on my enrolment to school in France, I'll comment when I'm done schooling in France.

If he too not a coward, why hin nor use Nigerian passport? All these diasporians like running mouth behind foreign passport

I don't even understand him...see long post choi

johnstar:
yaawn

mayb our fellow France student should confirm dis
je sui e fransire, la air france

u should confirm it first,it obvious u school'd in france abi na cotonou

And i thought KLM was worst

merieam16:
All those who school'd in france...confirm dis

the op is lying...
I schooled in france!!!!

What is all these “I school in france” “I live in france ” all about? Is this a new slang or what ?

boombay:

the op is lying...
I schooled in france!!!!

intrestin so u school'd in france nd u live in bombay rite cos moniker says it all

I have done Air France only once (Edinburgh to Paris, May 2013) and didn't have any negative experience.

However, I don't know Pius to be an alarmist.

I wonder if this report will get to the right ears.

tonytony208:
If you trample on your best dress, others will not hesitate to help you turn it to a rag. Our so-called leaders are corrupt without measure. Our national assembly members are disHonorable in their conducts; imagine a so-called honorable climbing fence to enter into the chamber, just like a street rogue. Doyin okupe, mr president's spokesman, always speaks like a first class barbarian each time he has the opportunity. What then are we bringing to the table to earn us any respect as a country? Nothing!!! We treat ourselves like idiots and wild beasts; do we now expect the world to treat us as wise or responsible people? We are fooling ourselves. In fact, our international humiliation has just begun. Pls Nigerians, fasten ur seat belt; the worst is yet to come

you have spoken well

godjohnson:
I don't understand the topic

I schooled in Belgium

but they speak French in Belgium too.

I had a very terrible experience flying with air france on my way to Jfk sometimes in august this year. had a more bitter experience in september when they claimed to be on strike...... I have sworn never to patronize them again.

Sir, you are an amazing writer!

bigtt76:
If he too not a coward, why hin nor use Nigerian passport? All these diasporians like running mouth behind foreign passport

You want those gendarmes to knack kondo for im head abi.
I like Airfrance though. They are the king of cheap tickets

Thank God I am enrolling my kid to attend a French speaking only primary and high school. He would naturally pick up Yoruba and English. One has to be bilingual these days.

Ah thank God I didn't even bother to have my self schooled in FRANCe...I for don hear ween

This OP funny ooh,How Much will you pay me to Read all this...In One Word Summaries it

Where are those idi'iots who schooled in France

I don't understand this I schooled in Togo

The author of this article comes off as a person who relishes in lauding and aggrandazing himself. Although completely irrelevant to the issue at hand, the author emphasizes on the manner in which he hands over his passport to the French authorities--with "supreme confidence," the author says. The author further states how he was able to provoke the attention of French authorities with his "Parsian French" accent, which apparently the author claims signals his "perfect command of the French language, culture, and civilization." Seriously? Did the author just proclaim that he wields "perfect command" of not only the French language but also of French "culture and civilization?" It is not over.

The author's tone shows that he thinks the French officials have accepted him as one of their own because of the author's ability to say "Putain de Merde" in "Parsian French" accent. You've got to be kidding me! The author, stating that this French lads know that he is one of their own and that he is intentionally provoking them, now proudly brandishes--not his Nigerian passport--but his Canadian passport. This begs the question whether the author is proudly French, proudly Canadian, or proudly Nigerian. The author proclaims he is a champion for the movement against Air France's treatment of Nigerians, the author hides behind his Canadian passport, and the author lastly states the French knew he is one of their own. Bravo, author!

The author now unfortunately admits that he made the situation worse for the Nigerians with Nigerian passports coming behind him. What was the author's motive in the first place of spewing his prowess of the French language and culture when he could not make the situation better? It seems the author's goal of writing the article is to show how the French were unable to demean him because of his Parsian French accent (even though the so called French accent did not stop the French authorities from asking him to present his passport).

To add frying pan to fire, the author calls Nigerians' complain about the death of our national carrier as a reason for the maltreatment Nigerians receive at the hands of French officials a "yeye argument." What the author fails to realize is that that argument makes more sense and would be more effective than the "braggadocio" tactics employed by the author. At the end of the day, if we had our house in order, as in had a vibrant economy and a respectable national carrier, the French would not treat us the way we are treated. At least we would have options.

I commend the author for recognizing that Nigerian officials sometimes underestimate Nigeria's economic prowess and the ability to recognize the dependence of some of these foreign airlines on revenue from Nigerian travelers. Again, it goes back to my earlier assertion that despite these foreign airlines' dependence on revenues from Nigerian travelers, they still maltreat Nigerians; they do so because we have limited options and no national carrier.

While I salute the author for his brazen in standing up to the French, it appears to have been motivated out of ego and out of a sense of how he feels he is better than the other Nigerians. His ability to speak with Parsian French accent apparently did not prevent his passport from being checked, and it obviously made it worse for the Nigerian passport holders behind him.

Sin chow hua? Jin sun park! I schooled in china sir!

Wat is air France? Cos I school in nigeria

I'm not surprised as KLM their partners used to do it a long time ago. British authorities once did it but have stopped.
I'm flying Air France back home for Christmas so let's see how it goes.
Finalement, je vais corroborer cette histoire.